What are you doing to keep young people here?
I may not be quite ready to carry the mantle of an official “blogger,” but I am ready to try my hand at a second post!
I must say, I was surprised by the number of responses to my first blog post – I’ve always seen literacy as an issue that affects all of us in some way or another, but didn’t truly realize how many of you felt the same. Thanks to all of you – with far more knowledge of literacy issues than me – for providing such great commentary and for adding context around this critical issue.
Before I move on from this topic, I want to point out an awareness campaign recently launched by the province called “Literacy: It means more than you think.” It’s encouraging to see the spotlight shine on this issue in new ways so the important discussion can continue.
I thought I would focus my second blog post on the issue of “talent.” I talk to companies all over the world, including here, every day. Access to talent is a big issue.
The fact of the matter is – the demographic pendulum has swung. Our population is shrinking. 2006 was the first year in my lifetime that the death rate was higher than the birth rate. By 2020, almost 25 per cent of Nova Scotians will be 65 or older. Those are staggering figures. It puts a huge pressure on publicly funding service providers (think health-care) – but it puts an equal pressure on businesses as they strive to remain competitive. All the more reason youth retention – talent retention – should be a priority.
There’s no quick-fix and no silver bullet. No one “owns” this issue. Youth retention is a shared responsibility. It’s not just up to governments to attract and retain young people. We all play a role – public sector, private sector, colleges and universities, not-for-profits.
Growing the population through immigration or increased birth rates takes time – we know that. But there are things we can do right now to develop and retain talent in the province to support our economy.
There are a number of organizations in this province doing great things to support talent development. I want to mention a few here:
- Pathways to Education is a truly inspiring program that supports young people from at-risk communities through secondary school and onward to college and university. It’s a program that began in Toronto’s Regent Park and has just been launched in Spryfield by a group of volunteers (one of which is Doug Hall, who just completed his term as chair of NSBI’s board).
- Junior Achievement is another great example. NSBI has long supported JA’s Economics of Staying in School program, which teaches students the value of a solid education, and the impact it has on their future earning potential.
- FUSION Halifax recently launched a mentorship program for young professionals, which Lisa Bugden, VP of NSBI, and I are proud to support as mentors.
- New Brunswick-based 21inc. has expanded its successful Emerging Leaders program, providing leadership opportunities for 20 Nova Scotians.
Those are just a few examples of how organizations are supporting workforce development in Nova Scotia. But it doesn’t have to be a large-scale effort. Small steps make a big difference.
Hire a co-op student. Leading employers like RIM hire hundreds of co-op students each and every term. We’re also seeing similar commitments from home-grown companies like NewPace. It is the best way to attract, train and retain talent.
Hire a new Canadian.
Hire a recent graduate. Don’t insist on 3-to-5-years’ experience. Don’t give young people a reason to leave because they may not come back.
It’s not all about money anymore. Focus on creating flexible, dynamic workplaces that are attractive to youth.
I’d love to hear your views on this issue, especially if you are a young person planning your future. What do you think is working? What can we – as a province, as businesses, as leaders – do better?
Hello Stephen,
Once again, you have raised an issue in your blog that touches a very important issue for young people like me.
I was born and raised in Halifax. I was educated in Halifax. In fact, I completed two university degrees (a Bachelors degree in Business Administration in Marketing and Management, along with a Masters degree in Public Relations) in Halifax. Can you guess where I finally found employment?
Not Halifax.
While in university, I took every step that young people are “supposed” to take in order to succeed – I volunteered, worked summers to gain more career-related experience, went to networking events, achieved a 4.0 GPA in University. In the end, none of these steps helped me land a job in Halifax, or even Nova Scotia for that matter.
Everyone kept telling me to “try harder” and “keep at it, your time will come.” I believed these people, and did exactly what they told me – I tried harder and kept at it. In fact, I was spending 12 hours per day searching for jobs, writing cover letters and applications, working with the career services department at MSVU on my resume and doing taped mock interviews. None of that helped me land a job in Nova Scotia either.
I did have my opportunities – I had second, third and fourth interviews with some very prominent organizations in Nova Scotia (which I won’t single out in this post because I am not looking to burn future bridges). All of these opportunities ended with nearly the same phone call or e-mail from HR people. They would all tell me that I interviewed extremely well but I simply did not have enough experience for the position – and then they would tell me to keep them in mind in the future.
After nine months of this process, I finally gave up on Nova Scotia. I had student loans to pay and I was sick of the rejection that I had faced. At this point I began applying to jobs across Canada.
It took me ONE WEEK to find a job. In fact, the job I landed was a much better opportunity for me than almost all of the jobs I had landed an interview for in NS.
I am now working in Toronto as a Content Specialist with Bell (Business Markets division). I love my job and I am treated very well here. Bell has provided me with a great opportunity and I plan to stay with the company for as long as they’ll have me – but it was only just a few months ago that I would have worked for 11 dollars an hour just to stay in Halifax.
So, to answer your questions at the end of the blog post – in relation to what is working – I believe that there are many forward-thinking employers in NS that do value the talents and motivation that young people bring to the workforce. These employers give new grads a small ray of hope, but it is unfortunate that they are few and far between. Many NS employers avoid hiring new grads due to common misperceptions about their abilities (or lack there of). This leads to talent exiting the province, and most of that talent never returns.
To solve the talent retention problem in NS, there are a hundred different points I’d like to cover but I will keep this short for now. You have already mentioned the most obvious fix for our talent retention problem Stephen. The 3-5 years experience rule has to go. If you look at the statistics for new grads staying within NS, you will find that a large portion of these grads cite “unable to attain career-related employment” as the reason they left the province.
For NS to have any chance to compete globally in the next 10-20 years, talent retention will have to take centre stage and become a more vital issue today.
attracting and retaining top-level talent has become a key issue for econnomic growth everywhere – the arts have become an essential factor in this equation – greater arts funding is an investment in the future – visit artseast.ca for more info.
“Hire a recent graduate. Don’t insist on 3-to-5-years’ experience. Don’t give young people a reason to leave because they may not come back.” That’s a hugely important point. I can’t count how many people I know who had to leave Halifax to get entry-level work in their fields, simply because potential employers didn’t place significant value on their education. And those people have put down roots in the places where their education was valued, and haven’t returned to Halifax
Stephen,
The following comments are my own opinion. I represent only myself in this expletive…er. Comment.
Ah. Nova Scotia. The wind blows strong from ocean currents. A drive to work crosses a bridge over an ocean. The people…are my people. Brave. Friendly. Courteous. Intelligent.
But its professional industry is a sham. Succession planning is nothing more than waiting for an older generation to retire, either from attrition or voluntary, and then to re-hire them as consultants. A young professional is a mere esoteric pawn in Nova Scotia. Groom us with the finest education in Canada and prepare us for professional occupations. Ply us with visions of rewarding careers. Mock us with hidden knowledge.
Then, if we are lucky, offer us a rewarding annual salary of $35,000 with a role that is nothing more than status quo. Or even worse, put us through a slew of interviews, only to be told, “You are too junior” and “you are too senior”, or “We are afraid you will not stay with us”.
Watch us run off to producing provinces that appreciate work ethic and sense of vision. Then create poor marketing campaigns that tease us with affordable mortgages and ocean views. Campaigns that insult the actual places that gave us a job in the first place. Come home and Come to life the campaigns says.
Sure. Would love to come home. Think of it everyday in fact. But to what? A volatile economy with minimal chance of earning a living comparable to my professional experience?
I went to school with Nick. I, like him, went through my difficulties in Nova Scotia. Spent a year and a half looking for work. Countless interviews. Would have jumped on an offer of a $35,000 annual salary. But, after many lumps, the final straw was a recruitment for a Marketing and Communications Manager role. Eight interviews. From Human Resources to President in same day. Panel interviews with Senior Partners and a Vice-president the next. Bought two new suits and watched my bank account drop even lower, but needed to have a professional image for the interviews.
Was asked for my salary expectations. Researched the grid and gave a reply just two shades under the going rate. Told the panel of interviewers my expectations and said I would be open to renegotiating six months down the road after I had proved my worth.
Two days later: you are too junior for the position.
One month later. Flourishing in Calgary as a Marketing and Communications Manager. Benchmarked our department as the best practices in marketing materials and strategy. Three times in less than seven months. More than 70% of my graduating class works outside of Nova Scotia. But almost all would gladly return home to family and their roots.
So, what can the East Coast do better? Join contemporary society and move forward with giving our talent an actual opportunity to produce. Offer the $35,000 annual salary to a student coming out of school with some experience in co-operative education terms. Just plan for the future. Damn it. Trust that we will make the right decisions. Past generations have not done much better. At least we understand technology.
Maybe. Maybe. Maybe one day, after I finish up a Masters degree in Communication Studies from a university that won’t literally rape me for tuition fees. Maybe we can return home. We talk about it every night. Hope for it every day. I still scour the recruitment websites. Still shake my head at the offered salaries for little more pittance than a crumb of bread. Even worse is that the pittance is now offered for want of experience now in the range of 5-7 years.
Long may your big jib draw.
I have never responded to a blog or post/comments but I will to yours. Don’t take this as an overly sensitive person objecting to inappropriate use of a term but in a discussion about job search and finding it difficult to secure work I’m certain this feedback will help you now and in the future. For someone with a Masters in Communications you should know full well that using a word related to a sexual assault is a very bad decision for someone looking to find work. They should add tact and/or common sense to whichever Masters program you participated in. Seriously there is no hidden agenda or attachment for this response simply I read a post that was so stupid and such a mistake that the hope is to help someone who is clearly young and ignorant.
Also, encourage more schools to do ESIS. I understand number has dropped in some places.
I’m on board with Todd though I have a slightly different experience. I left Halifax right after University, because I both wanted and needed to, and was lucky enough to move back to a decent job after I had gained some experience. Now I have seven years of experience, also in Marketing, and I’m looking for the next step but I can’t find it. I’ve applied for the few appealing jobs that come up, had some interviews and been told over and over that I’m up against more than 100 other people. So where’s the shortage? Not in Marketing jobs, that’s for sure.
I have a young family and a mortgage, I volunteer in my community, I’m good at my job but I can’t find anything new. If I leave now, I’m taking my family with me, including my professionally qualified husband and two kids. And if we leave now, I can’t see us coming back. When I went on mat leave, my company had piles of applications, some from people with 10 years experience and masters degrees applying for my low level, temporary position, paying some $30,000, if that.
Recent graduates are in a position to travel around. They are generally free of family commitments; aren’t tied down to a community and are often eager to try a new city. Let them go. Some of them will come back.
You need to work on keeping people like me, and bringing people like Todd back. (I don’t know him but he sounds like a keeper). Offer a good salary, or if you can’t, offer perks for people with young families, like flex time, daycares or good benefit packages. We have lots of talent still here. A lot of them are settling for less than they are worth and working below their potential because it’s that, or leave.
I have found th situation similar. mY wife and I moved back here over two years ago, to be closer to our homes and hopefully start a family here.
I gave up a permanent, secure position, for a temporary position in the hopes that it we could have better luck finding positions if we were actually here.
We have been postponing our family because we would prefer to establish a modicum of stability before taking that next step. I have been able to find something that may lead to a permanent position at a suitable level to my abilities, but my wife consistently has run into troubles, despite picking up short term position, and impressing those she woerks for, no long-term positions come out of it. For other positions she applies for she is competing against professionals that are so far over the job requirements that it makes it impossible to compete.
It is very frustrating. There seems to be such a lack of desire to be able to take on fresh ideas in this city and that makes it tough on younger professionals.
The comments above make me sad, because I know that great people like Todd and Nick aren’t alone. In the (relatively) few years that I’ve been in Nova Scotia, I’ve lost more than a few friends to opportunities in other parts of Canada.
I don’t think anything could be added to Stephen’s post. It really IS that simple. Successive provincial governments have done pretty much all they can to provide the right environment. Marketing campaigns and traveling job fairs have sent the message to people in other parts of Canada that there are opportunities to explore in Nova Scotia. That’s the point at which employers need to take the baton and run with it. And unfortunately not all of them (not even many of them, in my opinion) are doing so.
As Todd and Nick mentioned above, there are some great people who are willing to compromise their compensation expectations to stay here. Should they have to? Probably not. But given that this is the case, one has to ask why young people are still leaving.
“Three to five years of experience” needs to be eliminated from our vocabulary. Employers need to give young, talented employees a chance, and show them a career path that doesn’t involve ten years of ‘paying dues’ in roles without real responsibility. That’s all it would take. Because that’s all companies are doing in other cities.
Every employer really needs to be looking at themselves in the mirror and asking the question Stephen poses: “What AM I doing to keep young people here?”
Great post, and great conversation so far.
Our government has been singing the talent crunch song for a while and what will make businesses join the choir is feeling “the pain”. When we have no talent to hire because we didn’t invest in mentoring and building skills in the upcoming generations then businesses will cry a sad song.
Why wait? “Be the change you wish to see in the world”.
Young people, take your career in your own hands. I hear many leaders say “only you own your career path”. Ask for mentors. Have career conversations with your manager. Find more training. Network, network, network. Finding the right job takes time to explore. Start working for yourself on the side. Where there is a will, there’s a way. It’s not easy. I’m not in a position of authority to lecture. I’m only passing on tips that were given to me.
Companies, start seeing the value in young people. Start succession planning. Build internal mentorships. Guide their youthful energy. Young people want to explore new approaches with your advice. You can change your corporate culture if you have a vision and see the value.
Nova Scotia is a great province. We all have the same goal: to live and prosper at home.
Once again, this is my own personal opinion. No one else. Even though I have a familiar feeling that it may be the voice of many, many young professionals.
“Young people, take your career in your own hands. I hear many leaders say only you own your career path”. I actually found that statement interesting. It is such a broad soliloquy regarding the state of affairs for young professionals. You would think we sit at home playing video games or drinking all day. But, for my own sake, here is a list of my networking tactics:
1. Applied for any and every position that came up in my field. Wrote, re-wrote my resume, had dozens of eyes edit it for content, tailored it for key word search, and applied. 10-15 resumes. Every. Day. Rinse. Repeat.
2. Talked with everyone – both away and in Halifax – regarding positions in Halifax and anybody they might know.
3. Joined network nights – which are a mask for “let’s drink and be social” nights. Primarily filled with unemployed, older professionals with more experience than mine, and willing to work for the same gruel – aka salary.
4. I was an entrepreneur, so, yes, I did work for myself on the side with small contracts to pay bills. My mentor gave suggestions and I followed said suggestions.
5. Went to career fairs.
6. Called friends.
7. Directly called businesses and dropped off resumes or openly solicited employment opportunities.
8. Even enrolled in the “Diversity Talent Pool” to take a chance at getting just above minimum wage so I could barely pay bills, maybe eat, and definitely not take my girlfriend to a movie once in a while.
9. Called businesses back after interviews, after rejection letters, and asked for feedback. If I was too junior, asked what entry-level positions were available. If I was too senior, replied that I just wanted an opportunity and only wanted to contribute to a company and grow with it. Stay with it. For years.
9. And, really, how can young professionals without a career, even a j.o.b., “have career conversations with your manager” when they don’t have a manager to converse with?
I finally stopped listening to “tips that were given to me” and made an executive decision: I left the east coast. Moved to Calgary. I jumped up $25,000 in salary expectations and joined an organization that appreciated my expertise. How refreshing it was to hear it and to be acknowledged for my accomplishments – my hard-won accomplishments.
Network? Oh I networked. I went to employment fairs and people would ask me, “What are you doing here? You don’t belong here. How are you not working?” And, so, I listened.
And left. Oh east coast…will you recognize your son when he returns one day? If he CAN return one day?
Long may your big jib draw.
Hi everyone,
Thanks as always, Stephen, for stepping up and elevating the dialogue around this important issue. Prior to the recession, it seemed there was significant momentum around the notion that 20th century thinking around jobs, jobs, jobs was passe and that regions that focus on people first would position themselves nicely in a global market that would see a war for talent.
Sometime during the recession it seemed people in North America seemed to stop talking about the need to attract and retain young people (as if the small blip and slight extension on retirements would somehow eliminate the true demographic challenges that cities all over North America are facing). It seemed like all attraction/retentionefforts were put on hold and we reverted to an older mentality of ‘your lucky to have a job”. Smart in the short term- maybe. Clever in the long term- not so much.
Truth is, as you suggest, we MUST focus on young people and leaders should take it upon themselves to do their part to make this Province a destination of choice for young people and newcomers as well. I have always said that “cities that act, attract”. And kudos to you Stephen, for being one of those leaders who is ALWAYS speaking about the next generation and thinking about what you can do to clear the path for us to become firmly integrated into this Province in a way that respects our education and also embraces the value of our energy and innovative approach to things. We need more leaders who simply get it. We need more leaders who want to build the future by planting the seeds today.
I am from Nova Scotia, moved away for several years and then came back. Like so many others, I got a job by networking the heck out of this place. That is an inate characteristic of our community. You don’t usually get good jobs on recruiting sites like you might in bigger, more disconnected cities. Halifax is wildly connected and you better be in the mix if you want to get that dream job here. But does that have to be the case?
I think you are right that we all have a part to play and we can cultivate a culture that embraces young people if we start with small projects–impacting those people who are here in a way that will allow them to feel valued. And projects that will bring people home and welcome others tomake this their new home.
Personally, I have been a huge proponent of something even bigger though in order to bring some people back and welcome more newcomers to our community- a partnership between business, government, academia and the not for profit sector that would break down the silos and create a campaign and associated incentives that would position Nova Scotia at the forefront of people attraction.
If we focus on yong people and newcomers as assets and recognize the broader impacts of having them here- we will not only create meaningful opportunities for the Todd’s and Nick’s of the world, but we will also reap the economic and social capital impacts of having a younger generation and newcomers here to solidify the legacy we all aspire to build in Nova Scotia.
Will it require a policy shift in Government- yes. Will it cost money in increased wages and salaries and other incentives- yes. Will every sector need to own this- YES. Will we need to sit down together and develop a plan that is integrated and thoughtful? Yes. Will the return on far outweigh the investment- YES! Will we leverage strengths of cross sectoral integration? YES!
We have got to start to look at things more collectively and in more broad stroke medium and long term ways if we are to address current deficits and demographic challenges. That is the kind of inspired leadership we need.
The truth is that we are the second oldest population in Canada. And our Province just cannot thrive if we don’t start to look at things differently. Who will pay for chereished social services and infrastructure if we don’t have tax payers (if you want to look at it from a purely economic perspective)? Its time get focused on our priorities as a community. And attraction of people should be one of them. We are trying to solve problems with the same mentality that created them.
Its time to be bold and courageous and its time to try new things and think in new ways.
I think your efforts and those of others you reference are a great start….you show great leadership.
We need more of this and we need it yesterday.
LARSONS./ BERWICK////WHY ARE THEY NOT EXPORTING THEIR PRODUCTS TO OTHER COUNTRIES./ QUESTION FOR STEVEN LUND./
Actually, I think literacy as an issue also speaks to the idea of keeping young people in Nova Scotia. Bringing people here is one part of the solution — employing people who are already here, but are not engaged for a variety of social reasons (literacy, racial barriers, class etc.) is another piece of the puzzle as well.
It’s not all about professional-scale jobs. Everyone needs to feel like a productive member of their communities. Violence, drug addictions, and general inequity across the board are barriers to productive communities and to attracting young people to the province. In fact, I think the social barriers are more important than the economic ones. It’s not just that it’s hard to find a job -> it’s hard to make business happen when there are clients find it hard to have a conversation with anyone who is not related to them in some way.
Stephen,
Normally I don’t respond to blogs… but…
Thanks for calling out a big issue (and for the mention of NewPace). I think you’ve captured an important issue. However I think you may have avoided discussing two underlying problems: Atlantic Canadians don’t take risks and there needs to be a meaningful role or opportunity for the intern/co-op student.
Hiring a new grad is a risk, so Atlantic Canadian companies would prefer someone with 3-5 years professional experience. The refrain of “What if we hire the wrong person” are always rumbling in the back of someone’s mind given all the costs of hiring and unfortunately severance if it is the wrong candidate. Frankly without taking a risk you never get a reward but we live in a culture that encourages taking the “safe” road.
Secondly the quality of the opportunity is critical, as many comments have pointed out students and new grads are mobile, and they will go where the best work can be found. NewPace actually has to literally compete for students in our field of business. If Nova Scotia companies are not offering the students and new grads interesting work, they will go where they find interesting work. In the 1990′s there was a massive drain of our IT graduates, straight into Silicon Valley North in Ottawa… mostly to Nortel because there was an opportunity that didn’t exist at home. Today that big sucking sound is to Google & Facebook. Nova Scotia lacks an effective ecosystem to develop the opportunities at home.
I also feel the need to point out that Nova Scotia’s mentorship projects and business incentives are all messed up. NewPace self-funds one co-op position every semester since the first quarter we were in business. We don’t qualify for any of the provincial government grants for that position, because they are all targetted at creating employment outsite HRM, or they target positions with non-profit or municipal government organizations, or you must be conducting R&D under the SRED program. NewPace doesn’t fit in any of those categories so we fund it ourselves!
Why do we fund it? Because its in our company’s business interest to develop software engineers and have a pipeline of human capital that we can tap into when we need it in the future. It also gives us labour flexibility – not everything needs to be done by a senior person, and there is value in learning the basics. Provincially we must attach the same importance to the stewardship of human resources as we attach to our stewardship of the environment, or natural resources etc. Look at the focus India & China are putting on education. Look to California and you’ll see the influence of their state policy of free tuition for state residents (through the the University of California) continues to have the development of their technology and R&D driven economy. Its just one piece of their success, but I would argue probably a very important one…
NewPace has hired 4 new grads in our 18 months of existence. Everyone of them has brought significant new talent and diversity to our company. I celebrate every time we hire a new grad as they are sometimes the most dynamic and creative people who have not yet developed the cynical gene of us “older” folks. Yes we’re risk adverse, but we carefully screen every grad, and we minimize our risk by making mentoring a new grad part of the job description for a cadre of very senior and experienced people who are willing to take them under their wing and mentor them.
Its just one opinion, and I look forward to reading the rest of the debate.
Brent Newsome
President & CEO
NewPace Technology Development
I really hope that my comments are not dominating this blog. But, it is so close to my heart and thoughts. Home really is where my heart is. I left the west coast and returned to Halifax for university. My goal was to stay there and start a family. But, I digress.
Mr. Brent Newsome,
Your words bring comfort.
I think the focus on risk aversion is, at its highest level, a wayward misdirection away from not recognizing key factors. As one of my peers said, a co-operative education student herself, and I quote:
“Hiring students just makes sense in the busy PR/communications industry – by investing into and mentoring students, we are able to forgo the usual six-month probation training trial at a low financial cost and low risk.
By hiring students you create a pool of potential future employees with work you’ve witnessed first-hand.”
My grasp of interviews was that managers were afraid of hiring someone who might one day take their job. Personally, I strategically hire based on the chance that the person will one day take my job. It not only lights fuels my motivation to succeed, but it offers me the chance to mentor a young professional and develop them into a strong professional. I only hope they take my job, because if I am doing it right and elevating the business experience, then I take the job of the person who hired me.
I also think it comes down to more than providing a meaningful role for young professionals, Brent. It comes down to the the key factor of mentorship. Why will Atlantic Canada be in economic trouble – even more so than now – in the next 8-10 years? Simply because of a gap in the transfer of specialized knowledge from one generation to the next. Holding information closely to your chest just ends in that information being lost in translation when it comes time to deliver on a mass scale of economy.
Sure, young professionals understand technology, web marketing, graphic design, and content management systems. We can quickly master software programs with flawless ability and we know how to communicate and socially network.
But, we don’t have that breadth of experience with international relations, or best practices born from historical mistakes, and have not achieved benchmarked standards from trial and error. We might not be afraid to risk but we also might not understand the consequences of that risk. Mentors do.
But we want to have it. Nay. For the Canadian economy to survive and flourish, we must have it. Even our universities talk of merging to save our education. Why is there a lack of professional merging of strategies and tactics?
Business comes down to front-line people. Executives strategize and plan. Managers trickle down that plan. Coordinators execute and measure. Front-line, or entry-level support, live and breathe that strategy.
Risk aversion only keeps you away from the battle. You also need to wade in and join the fray. True leaders know the taste of competition. True leaders once stood on the front-line with fear in their hearts and determination to survive.
You, sir, and NewPace, simply: rock. You are taking a chance and the reward will be a person who will devote their time and efforts to your bottom line of success. I applaud you.
Long may your big jib draw.
My experience was almost exactly similar to the steps Todd outlined in his response to Bobbie Jo Hawkes, and thus I will refrain from writing another long post covering the same points. I took nearly each and every step Todd took and ended up basically the same results.
Constant rejection. Unrelenting frustration. Oh and student loan bills that weren’t getting paid. Can’t forget those.
The worst part of the whole process is that everyone I spoke with remained positive about my chances of landing a good job. I would always get “oh keep at it, the job will come”, “you have a MASTERS DEGREE AND SOME WORK EXPERIENCE, you’ll obviously land a job”, etc.
Truthfully after nine months of unemployment, I just felt like doing two things:
1 – Consistently beating my head off a brick wall
2 – Sitting each one of those people down and telling them all about why they were absolutely WRONG (of course, I would never do this because they were only trying to help, but after a while it was almost like patronization)
Nova Scotia is a very harsh territory for new grads, and unfortunately our province seems doomed to permanently lose the majority of our home grown talent. New grads are finding it tougher and tougher every year despite all of the good work that NSBI is doing in relation to placing Nova Scotia on the map for international business opportunities. Unfortunately, NSBI can’t fix NS all on their own.
This effort has to be province wide, but I just can’t forsee anything happening in the near future until companies start experiencing succession problems during the baby boom retirement stage. When existing managers move up into executive roles, companies will finally recognize the need for high-quality talent to fill their past roles. And in many cases, they will be unable to then find anyone with “3-5 years worth of experience” because they are not developing new grads into future management talent right now.
One important point that Nova Scotia business leaders do not seem to “get” is that talent does not magically grow itself. Eventually, the provinces and countries that are recruiting our new grad talent will be able to beat us in every economic way possible – more advanced and talented knowledge workers (some recruited straight from us!), more opportunity for employment at every level, higher salaries, more competitive products to export, etc.
Here’s another secret for those Nova Scotia business leaders that seem to “not get it” – Many talented new grads LOVE our province and as sad as it is, many would be willing to stay in the province and “pay their dues” working for 10-15 bucks/hour as long as they were afforded the opportunity to gain meaningful work experience that could advance their careers.
I recently shut down my first business after 5+ years. Now it had a lot to do with it being my first business and me making many mistakes, but at the end of the day I simply couldn’t get it to where I needed it to be with a child on the way in the New Year.
But part of the reason I couldn’t get it where I needed to was due to the huge debt load I am carrying, a significant portion due to student loans (as does my wife). I have 4 friends right now literally counting the days until they can file bankruptcy and be free of their student loans. Now 3 of those friends I know tried their damnest to stay on top of the loans, but they didn’t want to leave NS. So now they’ll pay with their credit for wanting to remain here and work jobs that didn’t allow them to get by while squaring away their loans and doing all the things we’re told we should [start families, buy a home etc.].
The majority of friends I know who paid down their loans, left NS to do so (certainly not all of them though). So the first thing I would recommend is addressing the cost of tuition in NS and the resulting debts of the young. If we are to stay here there should be more assitance or better paying jobs or something. I know too many people who’s biggest stress in life (as it has at times in mine) been student loan debt.
When I graduated from Dal the only jobs I could get were call centers. 5 of them. Never. Again. So I started my own business as the only other option was moving. I was too over qualified for some jobs and/or lacked the noted experince for others.
While my first business is done, from that business I was able to be part of starting 3 additional ventures.
An indie label, a innovativate space downtown called the Hub (co-founder only, no ownership), and most recently/ongoing a music focused crowdfunding service.
NSBI for example was not interested or able to assist me at all based on their mandate and the number of jobs – or lack of – in my case that would have been created from all my ventures. That to me is an issue. Once you have tapped CEED (who are pretty amazing), there is a huge gap in this region for next level funding.
I find that to be a shared issue in this city across many organizations much like the 3-5 years experience requirement. While I understand the need for criteria – for all kinds of reasons from program focus to reporting to other stakeholders – I find more often than not they seem to exclude locals actually already doing things and focus on the big opportunities they can bring in from away (like those wonderful call centers I was employed at, supported with government tax rebates).
I find there is a top down mentaility with politicians and business leaders that if we can only land the next big concert, or the next big comany here we’ll be put on the map while the folks living here, putting us on the map have to compete against this mentality with little help if their plans do not meet existing criteria for support of whatever kind.
So my suggestions:
1) Addres the tuition/student loan issue for NS residents.
2) Actually support the arts, no more lip service. The arts are a multi-billion international business – and we have some of the best talent in the world – speaking from my music experience. It is amazing the talent here considering our population. If the music community is good enough to draw musicians from across Canada to relocate here as it has – I know it can and will attract and keep youth here. But business leaders have to support it via festivals like the Pop Explosion and local artists. Send them abroad to spread word of Halifax – and stop hoping the likes of the the Rolling Stones will do anything for us.
3) A lively arts scene would assist with this point raised by Paul Graham:
To attract the young, a town must have an intact center….My guess is that no city with a dead center could be turned into a startup hub. Young people don’t want to live in the suburbs.
Barrington Street is a mess of empty store fronts, the neglected Khyber and redundant bus routes. The core needs to be fixed. And while folks on the outskirts main complain, they will benefit longterm and overall if the core of the city is strong and vibrant.
4) Be open to new ideas. Put flexibilty in criteria so when a good idea/person/company comes along you don’t have to say I wish we could help you but here’s how we can help you. A member at the Hub tried creating a site to improve Metro Transit’s horrible, horrible service. He was doing it for free. To make their service better. And they fought him and fought him and fought him. Young people trying to do things and being slammed in the face again and again, welcome to Halifax! I recall a street party in teh north end being canceled due to burcratic BS. So much effort peopel I know put into trying to do things here goes into trying to deal with the powers that be and jumping through needless hurdles when youth want to DO.
Again, from Paul Graham: What you can’t have, [if you want to create a silicon valley,(or I beieve and happening center of commerce)] is a large, existing population of stodgy people.
We have too many such people running the show in this town. And they’re preventing younger people from doing and making the city all it could be.
5) Look at the the funding for opportunities and businesses from outside the region, and make sure the is equal or greater funding for people who actually have choosen to live here and wish to remain doing so. They will do mor efor the commuity than any call center ever could. We don’t need big businesses, just passionate entrepreneurs: To Create Jobs, Nurture Start-Ups: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/business/12unboxed.html?_r=4&hpw
I am making one last go of things here for my family. Starting one more business, while still maintaining one other (which I can run from anywhere) – in an attempt to push many of the ideas I believe in – change, the digital economy, mobiles, crowdsourcing etc. If that fails, I will have no choice but to look for work elsewhere, and I know it is out there as I have turned down opprotunities in the past.
At this point I think odds are 50/50 if my kid starts school in NS. And it won’t be from my lack of trying to keep them here.
I agree with Todd and Nick’s posts. I am also one of the recent graduates who faced many challenges piercing the «Halifax» workforce, more specifically in Public Relations, communications, marketing and all of the above. Not to mention I still haven’t….
Unlike Todd and Nick, I have been lucky enough to land a contract position in Halifax however, it is still not in the field I hoped to be. (Great experience nonetheless)
Ironically enough, my position requires me to gather stakeholders who play a role on employability (government, communities, educational institutions) and together find solutions on how to attach people to the workforce and improve employability in NS ( increase training, succession planning, immigration, essential skill training, bringing back youth through awareness projects, etc) I can therefore say that I truly breath this critical problem everyday of my life through my job and my personal case.
I think that a province with 11 Universities and countless post-secondary institutions should not be facing a labour issue and nonetheless an economic development issue. I speak with government on a daily basis and it is a fact that in 5 years that NS is going to be in a great deal of trouble when it comes to succession. My question is why aren’t businesses acting now. Shouldn’t most CEOs, Presidents, Managers, etc. have the knowledge with their 10+ years experience to know that it is best to be proactive to a situation rather than reactive. I am pretty sure that all graduates know this…The fact is we are loosing our youth and when we need them, we will not be able to get them back as easily as one would think. They have left, found jobs elsewhere and will not necessarily just up and leave a company that gave them the chance we never did.
Rural NS is struggling with their own issues ( Not enough qualified jobs, illiteracy, low-paying jobs, plant closures). The province is truly working on this issue the best they can, so now it is up to the private sector and businesses to do their job to help in any way they can contribute. (Hire the youth, decentralizing of jobs, Employee growth through training, etc)
If we have a more qualified and attractive workforce as a province, we will be competitive and will attract more businesses, then attracting more youth and qualified workers and so on. It is a vicious but wonderful circle and we need to be part of it… before it is too late.
Perhaps employers could be more open-minded, but when I look at the fact that employers won’t hire students without experience, I understand that as an indictment of our post-secondary institutions.
It’s telling that in the bullet point examples mentioned in the blog cite no programs that involve our province’s 11 universities, even though students enter university expecting to be workplace ready upon graduation. Our employers and students are routinely let down by our post-secondary institutions because of the lack of desire from our universities to develop work-ready graduates.
RIM is mentioned in the blog as a good example of an employer that hires co-op students. While it may be true that they are hiring hundreds of co-op placements, it’s also true that they’re not hiring hundreds of marketing students. They want technical skills. In Kitchener-Waterloo there is both high unemployment and a significant skill shortage. The post-secondary institutions have not provided a workforce with the right skills. This does not make RIM a bad employer for students. This means that RIM is being held back by the very institutions that they need if they wish to continue to be a competitive force in an increasingly competitive business.
On any given day the Halifax Regional School Board will employ 300 substitute teachers. This sounds like a lot until you realize that there are roughly 1,000 substitute teachers available to work on any given day. This does not make the school board bad at hiring young people; you can’t hire for jobs that don’t exist.
Universities seek to put bums in seats. Too often this means that they do not answer questions about what is good for our workforce and province. They should take a page out of the provincial education system’s community-based learning programs which afford students the opportunity to gain experience in real jobs. Most undergraduate programs do little if anything to connect students with employers.
We should consider drastic changes to what we expect from our 11 universities. I will put forth the following suggestions for discussion:
1. Develop an accountability framework that clearly outlines the university’s role in developing a skilled workforce and ties future funding to placement of students in the Nova Scotian workforce;
2. Insist on co-op programs for all undergraduate degrees. No doubt many degrees will struggle to find placements for their students. If they can’t find placement opportunities for co-op students there is a reasonable presumption that graduates will struggle to find good employment in that field upon degree completion;
3. Have universities work with students on “soft” skills, many of which are less about academics and more about workplace expectations and effective communication in a real world environment. Also have universities work with students on career planning.
In Alberta many employers are in need of students and for that reason they may appear to be more open-minded. In Nova Scotia students are still in need of employers. Let’s adjust our thinking accordingly.
In the O’Neil Report it is noted that universities are accountable to three primary groups: tax payers, students, and boards of governors. The private sector is not mentioned. If employers are not viewed as stakeholders and clients of our universities, students and businesses alike will be the worse for it.
@ Todd – My comments were not suggesting you didn’t do enough. I too spent 1 year job searching the same way you did with 3-5 years experience and great contacts. This dialogue asked for suggestions on keeping our talent and I passed on what I was told by senior leaders. Young people work their tails off to stay here.
There are a few examples of great employers who invest & reap the rewards of young talent in this city. There needs to be more. Maybe those businesses who invest in young talent should share their good news story more.
Thank you Stephen for providing a forum for thoughts on important matters. Let me say something from the perspective of a small business in Halifax and our hiring practices. Here are four thoughts:
1. SMEs simply cannot afford it. We almost never hire someone with less than 3 years’ experience because we feel we simply cannot afford the ramp-up up to the time when we’d receive a return on our investment. Sad but true. Once we get a little larger that will change, but for now that’s the way it is. And a large percentage of Nova Scotia’s economy is made of small firms like ours. On the “Hire a new Canadian” suggestion, I should mention that we do hire immigrants with great results. But they come with experience.
2. Excellent government programs are allowed to die. There have been excellent government programs in the past that have made companies like ours change our tune, because suddenly it was easy to justify hiring recent graduates. Unfortunately, these programs are either too limited in scope or no longer offered. One example is the Export Internship for Trade Graduates (EITG) program, in which the federal government, through ACOA, funded one year’s salary for recent graduates. I loved this program, and in fact one of my star employees is a result of this program; no doubt the government will get back in taxes what it invested in him. Alas this program is no longer offered.
3. Excellent government programs are limited in scope. Other excellent programs that support small business – NSBI’s Go-Ahead and Service Exporter programs are two examples – that are designed to help SME’s find new export business; once they do these SME’s will grow and have more options for hiring people. ACOA’s export mentoring program is another one. But in my view they are too limited; multiply these by 10 and you’ll have it, and I understand that’s a lot easier said than done. (Payroll rebates are also offered to SMEs, but that’s a blog entry of its own.)
4. I have a suggestion. Here is what’s really needed, and I’ve talked to numerous economic development people who wholeheartedly agree, so I wonder why it never gets implemented: that’s a program whereby export marketing expertise is provided on an ongoing basis over an extended period of time to help SME’s find new markets (as opposed to just one batch of 40 hours). Even seasoned business professionals know very little about exporting and this is something many companies would be willing to pay a fee for. Between the fee (which would also serve to screen out non-serious people) and payroll taxes from new hires, I think a case can be made that such a program could end up actually making money for the government, as well as the businesses, which in turn would hire more young people. Win-win-win.
Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to this post. It’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought into these comments, which just illustrates the importance of the issue. We have some work to do in Nova Scotia.
In part because of your thoughtful and candid replies, I’ve been asked to be a guest on CBC Radio’s Mainstreet next week (Thursday, Dec. 2). I encourage you to phone in and share your suggestions on what we can do – as individuals, as organizations, as businesses – to keep young people here. This online discussion has helped better define the problem; I’d love to now hear your thoughts on some possible solutions – either online or during the Mainstreet call-in.
Here’s the archive of the call-in show:
http://www.cbc.ca/maritimenoon/2010/12/advice-for-nb-premier-whats-the-best-way-to-keep-young-people-in-the-maritimes.html
Stephen – thank you for initiating a dialogue on this very important issue. Like Pat from NicomIT and Brent from NewPace, I also approach this subject from the perspective of a business owner and operator. As a guy who has been in the position of recruiting and hiring new grads over the past 10 years I will be the first to admit that it is not an easy task.
As Pat and Brent reflect there is risk associated with hiring new grads. However, as they also note, there are the undeniable rewards of identifying and engaging young, bright, and motivated grads that will become the passion and lifeblood of your organization. So what does one do to mitigate the risk of making the wrong decision?
If you are like me, and I suspect many small to medium size business leaders are, you rely on your personal networks to locate and recruit interns, co-ops and part-time placements in order to try-before-you buy. These networks generally include professors and career development officers at the local universities and colleges who are able to recommend potential candidates. This can work for both students and employers but it is incredibly inefficient and you are never completely satisfied that you are encountering the best-fit candidates.
One solution to this problem is to create a forum where career motivated students can learn about and engage with potential employers throughout their time in high school, college and university. In turn employers can proactively seek out and review online student portfolios and forge early relationships with potential candidates. This is what we are building at Equals6.com (insert shameless plug here!). Rather than risk further “elevator pitchiness” I won’t elaborate beyond saying that we are attempting to address the new grad hiring issue for both students and employers within the Equals6.com network.
So not only are we keenly aware of the seriousness of this issue, we’re willing to build a business to help address it. Furthermore, we’re banking on students and new grads to help us become part of the solution as greater than 50% of our staff are university and college students.
Andy Osburn
CEO
Equals6.com
As Program Director for Pathways to Education in Spryfield, I was very gratified to note Stephen’s positive reference to our program. His comments echo what we are hearing from students, families, teachers and community leaders. Pathways has helped change many communities by targetting the high school dropout rate that plagues many of our most challenged communities. Through a community-based, comprehensive approach, Pathways helps students complete high school and become better prepared to attend post-secondary institutions or to enter into meaningful and rewarding employment. We all understand the clear connection between education and economic growth…for individuals, communities, and Nova Scotia…and Pathways is one strategy that helps communities and the next generation take ownership and control of the future. We all benefit when we accept and nurture our collective responsibility to the young people of our province.
Steven I have held back commenting here on your recent blog as I did not want to chime in on an excellent discussion about the state of attracting and retaining talent here in Nova Scotia with what might be viewed as a “self serving” comment. However, after some prompting, I will.
I work for the Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University and am responsible for promoting the student employment programs like our Commerce Co-op and our new Corporate Residency MBA to employers here in Nova Scotia and beyond. For the most part these programs are well supported by Nova Scotian companies. Many employers value what the students can bring to their businesses and also the sense of “giving back” that they get. The university greatly values those employers as do our students.
I would like to give those companies who have not as yet engaged in student employment and would like to do something about keeping young people here in Nova Scotia the opportunity to do so.
We have over 100 Commerce and MBA students in need of a co-op or internship to start this January 2011. Time is running out!
These students come armed with the latest business technologies and methodologies and can have a very positive and progressive effect on your business and existing staff. Co-ops and interns are a great way to ensure a talent pipeline for your business. As one commenter said “Hiring students just makes sense – by investing into and mentoring students, employers are able to forgo the usual six-month probation training trial at a low financial cost and low risk.” Today’s business student brings more experience to your business than you realise…the ability to multi task, collaborate, influence properly, diversity of thought and the ability to adapt and evolve. All the attributes to be successful in tomorrow’s business world.
Do your business a favour and help support Nova Scotia’s future.
Hire a Student!
For more detail on our student employment programs please go to http://www.dalmba.ca or http://www.dal.ca/bcomm or contact Lynn Cochrane at 902 494 4583 or lynn.cochrane@dal.ca .
Thank you for your consideration and we look forward to hearing from you.
I just finished listening to the CBC phone-in show on this topic, and many good ideas were brought forth. I identified with the young people who feel they have to go elsewhere to get some experience and that certainly was my story. I went to Montreal so I could make good use of my bilingualism (plus I was a strong Habs fan), as well as start a career in information technology, which we called data processing back then. I ended up being so lonely and aching to get back to the Maritimes that I didn’t care what language I used or which team I cheered for, and when I landed in Halifax (which I really didn’t know very well beforehand) I fell in love on the spot and am still in love with it 35 years later.
On the radio show, a lot was talked about what government and business can do, but only brief mention on the education system. I know when it comes to technology, my experience has been that there doesn’t always seem to be a connection between required technologies and offered technologies. The universities in particular want to be open and impartial, which I think at times makes them miss opportunities to work with industry leaders like Microsoft or Apple, to provide nuts-and-bolts training that would be practical on day one. At least when I was in university, we worked with IBM and Digital programming languages that were the same things used by industry back then. The fact remains that today if we, at Nicom for example, were to hire a new university grad, we would then have to retrain them in the technologies they would need to know to be productive. And I’m talking Microsoft, not some obscure programming language only a handful of people use.
Am I wrong in this? I went online looking at Dalhousie and NSCC curriculums and couldn’t find a thing. Did I just not look hard enough? If some university person steps up, I’ll be glad to make introductions.
“Hire a recent graduate. Don’t insist on 3-to-5-years’ experience. Don’t give young people a reason to leave because they may not come back
You said it. Look at all the students graduating out of Halifax. NS firms should sourcing top talent early to keep it!
Regards from Kuala Lumpur!
Joshua Brown,
I’m a twenty year IT veteran and I’ve been working in Texas for the last five years. Not by choice and certainly not because I crave US citizenship.
I recently returned to Nova Scotia to spend time with a critically ill family member and It is disheartening to see that NOTHING has changed since I left.
After being back for a couple of weeks, I thought, maybe this time. I started working on my first PC back in 1984 and since then I’ve worked for Microsoft, Verizon, Morgan Stanley, British Petroleum, Rackspace to name a few. Surely I have enough experience now to find a decent role in Nova Scotia.
Not a chance.
One of my fondest memories of working in corporate Nova Scotia was when a government official had filled a room in downtown Halifax with 20 experienced IT professionals.
He wanted to ask us – “How can we draw talent back to Nova Scotia?”
The room was very vocal about steady, decent paying and even challenging types of roles that would bring back Bluenosers in droves.
His response – “So, do do you think we could have a party, and put a ad on the front page of the Halifax Herald?”
He had heard the words, but he wasn’t capable of listening. Nor was he even remotely interested.
Sadly, nothing has changed. Back to Texas I guess.
Well Well Well, good old Nova Scotia. Its true. What all my young esteemed student friends wrote earlier here. I am a masters student, just finished my MA at Dal. Frankly speaking, I haven’t had a single interview. I was perhaps the only student in my graduate class that worked and acquired good work experience while pursuing graduate school coursework.
Whats interesting is that I applied for a few positions at NSBI. Never heard back though i thought that my work experience with a lot of local organizations would at least get me an interview. I am not even sure if people even look at my CV here in Halifax. If an organization is interested in work experience, well I have lots of it, but it still doesn’t help me out.
The solution is that I am not going to live in a dream world. it is perhaps time for me to move to bigger and greater cities, Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. Now these cities aren’t great because they are bigger, have more people, No. These are vibrant cities that have become great because they give people with talent, passion and ideas at chance. Unfortunately, Halifax isn’t like that.